Reunion
by your royal highness
Summary: One of Tony's old Ohio State buddies is the witness of a murder. Tony's thrilled. Too bad his buddy has a thing for Ziva. Jealousy attacks. He lets his feelings get too deep, which takes a toll on the case and her life. TIVA
1. Jake

"Morning, Ziva. Morning, McProbious." Tony said as he smirked at the junior field agent, taking his seat down at his desk, licking his lips and staring with wide, anxious eyes at the paper bag in front of him. Ziva looked up at him, amused by his amusement, and he made an.._interesting…_noise as he quickly snatched his hand out of the bag and revealed the powdered jelly donut. He pointed to it and showed it around the bullpen, "Yes, that's right. _A donut._" He said, grinning, and Ziva rolled her eyes.

"Only you would be so immature." She muttered under her breath.

Tony smirked and shared a look with McGee before standing up and sauntering over to his partner's desk. He stopped next to her, "You're jealous." He said, and she furrowed her eyebrows together, a look that he absolutely adored as she stared up at him.

"What? Jealous of what? Your donut?" She scoffed, "You could not be more wrong."

"Oh really?" He asked, twirling it around her face, "Bet you can't get it, bet you can't resist it…"

"Tony, I wouldn't do that if I were you." McGee said, looking up from his computer.

Tony turned his head to Tim, "Hey, shut up, probie. No one asked for your opinion." He suddenly felt two warm hands around his and he snapped his eyes towards her. The donut was just inches from her mouth, and he quickly moved his mouth towards hers to snatch the donut away.

"You could always share." She said, seductively, the space limited between them.

"We could, could we?" Tony asked, and she nodded her head.

"Or we could play a game. Were you not telling me the other day to act childish?"

"Yeah, okay, what game?" He challenged, the space not moving from between them.

"Whoever eats the most donut first wins."

"Oh, like the spaghetti game!" He exclaimed, "With the noodles!"

She nodded, a thicker Israeli accent butting in as she said, "Exactly." With a seductive smile.

"Oh…" He said, wiggling his eyebrows but then narrowing his eyes, "You're on." He said, "Probie! Come and see who wins! You're the judge."

"Oh, I think you'll know who wins." McGee said, "I'm going down to the lab. See you guys later." He said before exiting the bullpen, "Oh my god…" He muttered. He was tired of their stupid little flirting. Maybe with this spaghetti or donut game or whatever they would finally kiss and get over their _stupid _flirting banter.

"One the count of three. One…" Tony started, placing the donut in position between their mouths. Only a couple inches.

"Two." She said, smiling at him.

"Three!" Tony exclaimed, and they started eating. The jelly donut broke in half and Tony quickly started to eat it up. Ziva did the same and it wasn't long until their lips touched beneath the huge lumps of jelly between them, coating their faces.

Someone cleared their throat and they both turned to see Gibbs standing in the entrance to the bullpen, coffee in hand an annoyed or confused expression on his face, it was difficult to understand. It was just one of those looks that you _don't know. _You just don't.

"Look boss we were just-" Tony started, red jelly flying everywhere as he talked, standing up to his full height.

Gibbs put his hands up in protest, "I don't even want to know." He said as his cell phone rang. He started towards his desk and Tony shared a look with Ziva, who just rolled her eyes before he took his seat back down at his desk.

"Yeah Gibbs." He said, "Be right there." He hung up the phone and reached for his SIG, "Gear up. Dead marine in a residence in Georgetown. Come on, let's move." Both Tony and Ziva stood up, gearing up as Gibbs looked at McGee's desk, "Where's McGee?" He demanded and simultaneously, not looking up at all they said where he was.

"Lab."

"Great. I'll go and get him. Ziva. Call Duck. DiNozzo."

"Yeah, boss?" He asked, looking up as he holstered his SIG.

He tossed him the keys, "Gas the truck."

"On it boss!" he said as he reached into his drawer, pulling out a roll of paper towels. He took a sheet off and wiped the Jelly away before chucking it at Ziva, who caught it easily using her ninja reflexes.

"Thanks." She smiled as she picked up the phone to call the ME and Tony headed towards the parking garage.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So what were you and Abby doing down there in the lab?" Tony asked as the three agents walked side by side towards the house where the dead marine was found this morning.

"Nothing, Tony." He rolled his eyes, "Not everything has to do with sex."

"I knew that." Tony said, offended, "I really just wanted to know what you were doing." He was being honest, which scared McGee, but he shrugged it off.

"So how'd that stupid donut contest go?" McGee asked.

Both Tony and Ziva said, together, simultaneously, "I won." They said, smirking before all three agents stopped. Tony and Ziva turned to each other.

"I won!" Ziva exclaimed, laughing a little, "You cannot deny that fact, Tony."

"Naw, I won."

"You both lost. Get over it." Gibbs said, "We've got a murder to solve." He appeared out of nowhere, like usually and stopped the three by standing in front of them, "McGee." He said, shoving evidence bags at him, "Bag and Tag."

"DiNozzo." He said, shoving him a notebook, "Witness statements."

"Ziva." He said, shoving her a camera, "Crime scene photos. Ducky should be here any moment to take him back to headquarters. Get moving." McGee and Ziva quickly walked into the house as Tony continued to stand in front of his boss.

"You gonna stand there DiNozzo or take the witness statements?"

"Uh…witness statements." He chose, flashing him his famous DiNozzo smile, "Just one question though, boss. Who's the witness?"

"Brown haired male over there." He said, pointing to the man in the red shirt by the picket fence, "Local LEO's ID'ed him as a Jacob Craig. Go and talk to him." He said, pointing to the man, and Tony nodded as the boss started to walk away.

"You know, one of my frat brothers in college was named Jacob Craig!" He called back before sighing and then walking towards the white fence, "Excuse me, Mr. Jacob Craig?" He asked, and he turned around.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Hi, Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, NCIS. Here to-"

"Hold on…did you just say Anthony DiNozzo?" He asked, and Tony nodded.

"Yeah…" He said, looking around a bit and laughing, "That's my name."

"Tony!" He said, throwing his arms out, and it was only then that he realized that the red shirt he was wearing was an Ohio State Buckeyes shirt, "Buddy! How you've been doing?"

He gave him his famous DiNozzo smile and then gave him a loose hug, patting him on the back a couple of times, "Awesome!" He said, "Never thought I'd see you again!"

"Me neither! So you're a federal agent now, are you?"

"Yup." He said as he spotted the ME's truck come up and pull into the driveway out of the corner of his eye, "It's great. Really. The work is amazing and it's so much better than my PD stunts I've done in the past. They're _horrible!" _Tony laughed, "But enough about me, what about you? Wait, I need to take your statement." He sighed, remembering, laughing a little as he glanced down at his notepad, "They really shouldn't have made me take witness statements."

Jacob laughed, "What? You flirt with all the women like you did in college?"

It was Tony's turn to laugh, "Well…sometimes. But I haven't done much lately. Must be a dry spell or something." He said before he felt Jacob's arm shaking him. He followed his gaze.

"Look…" He said, and Tony stared at what he was staring at.

"What?" Tony asked as he watched McGee and Ziva walk out of the house. Ziva had her NCIS ball cap off, her unusually straightened hair bouncing in her step, the camera in her right hand. She spotted Tony and then quickly walked towards him.

"Whoa, whoa, she's coming towards us."

"Who? Ziva?" Tony asked, confused.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. That _goddess." _He swooned and Tony slowly turned to stare, okay more like gape at his apparent 'best friend' from college. There was no way he was talking about _his-_

"Tony." She said, stopping dangerously close to him, "You done take witness statements?"

"Not…not yet." He said, and she rolled her eyes.

"Tony, Gibbs is ready to go."

"I'll…I'll be there in a minute, sweetcheeks. Go and tell Gibbs I'm almost done."

"Fine." She said, turning around and walking away before yelling over her shoulder, "You have five minutes, my little hairy butt." She smirked, resorting back to their undercover nicknames for each other.

He grabbed onto his arm, shaking him, "Hey, hey, Tony, buddy, forget the interview, can I just have her number?" He asked, staring after Ziva the entire time as she spoke to Gibbs.

Tony smirked and snatched his arm out of his grip, "No." he said, "Witness statement. Now."

"Whoa, whoa, buddy. Calm down. I thought we were friends." Tony faked a smile, okay, _forced _a smile.

"Yeah, we are." _If you shut up about Ziva, yeah. _

"So where we were?"

"Witness statement."

"Oh yeah. That." He smirked, "And _then _I can get her number." He saw the anger boil in his old friends eyes, and he put his hands up, "Look, I understand." He shrugged his shoulders, "It's the guys rule number one; no flirting with someone else's girlfriend."


	2. No Bullet?

Tony kept his eye on Ziva, standing as close as possible to her and keeping her in his eye sight at all times as well at Jacob. He didn't know what he could pull, but he knew that whatever it was, he wasn't going to get closer to his partner. Emphasis on the '_his'. _

"Hey, Tony, man, why am I here?"

Tony knew that he had to stay on his good side if he wanted him not to go after Ziva, even though he didn't believe that she wasn't his girlfriend after he tried to explain their…relationship…over and over again, "Cause Gibbs told me to take you with me. You witnessed the entire thing, and we need you to help us out." He smiled, looking sideways at Ziva as they walked towards the elevator in the evidence garage. Ziva shoved her bangs away with her hand, and Tony watched as Jake's mouth dropped open, drooling a little. He rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe it. She just flipped her hair up so the elevator could read her eyes.

The elevator opened for them and the three walked in, Tony immediately rushing to Ziva's side. Ziva smirked as Jacob turned around to talk to her, "Hey, so what's your name again?"

"Ziva." She said, simply, giving him a tight, small smile. Tony silently cheered in the back of his mind, but instead he kept quiet.

"Ziiivaaa…" He drawled, smiling as the letters ran over his tongue, "I like that name."

"Thank you." She said, no expression or tone in her voice. The elevator doors reopened and Ziva huffed and pushed past Jacob, "Tony!" She called, not turning back around as he quickly caught up to her, matching her exact stride as she shared him a look before they both chucked their backpacks at their desks, each landing at the exact same time before they walked out of the bullpen they just entered and to the other elevator.

Jacob came around the corner and smiled, standing in the entrance to the bullpen, staring at McGee, who was avidly typing on his computer, "So what're they gonna do?" He chuckled, "Have quick sex in the elevator?" McGee snapped his head up to look at Jacob and shook his head.

"They better not, or Gibbs'll kill 'em!"

"Kill who, McGee?" Gibbs asked as he walked into the bullpen, "Where the hell are DiNozzo and Ziva?"

"Uh…elevator I guess? I mean, I don't know because-"

"Right here, Gibbs." Ziva said as she and Tony walked back into the bullpen. Gibbs gave them his famous smirk and then nodded.

"Having that donut contest again?" he asked, "DiNozzo?"

"Nope." He said, and Gibbs nodded.

"Good. 'Cause Ducky just called, he's got something for us downstairs. Ziva, McGee, with me. DiNozzo, you stay up here and watch your buddy."

Tony sighed and sank down in his chair. Ziva noticed his look of discomfort and smiled, "Sorry Tony." She said in a pouting voice before tussling his hair, laughing her sweet Israeli laugh that made his entire body soar, and then following the other two out of the bullpen and down to autopsy.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Jethro!" Ducky announced as the three agents walked into autopsy, crowding around the slab that contained the body.

"Duck. Whatcha got for me?"

"A murder." He said, chuckling a little bit as Ziva shared a smile with McGee, and even Gibbs gave a half-smile before it was quickly wiped off of his face.

"How'd he die?"

"Excellent question." He pointed to the body, circling his finger around the chest area, "As you can see here, there is a bullet hole right in the chest. Right at the heart." He turned to Gibbs, "One shot at it was over. It punctured his heart, went right through the arteries, and then didn't reappear! I can't find it anywhere, Jethro, it's very odd. However, I did find an exit wound, so it is possible that we missed the bullet."

"How can that be possible?" Jethro asked, turning to his two agents, "When I assigned McGee to bag and tag everything he found?" He asked, pointedly at McGee. Ziva's cell started to ring.

She sighed and put a finger up, "Sorry Gibbs." She said, checking the caller ID. _Tony. _She furrowed her eyebrows together and stared down at it, blinking again as she shook her head, "Tony?" She asked out loud before sharing a confused look with McGee and answering it.

"What?" She demanded.

"Hey, Ziva? It's Jake! Yeah I-" She rolled her eyes, huffed, and then shut her phone, growling at it. Why did this loser have to like her? She noticed only then that McGee, Ducky, and Gibbs were all strangely staring at her.

"Sorry. I must get back up to the bullpen."

"Fine." Gibbs nodded, "Then I want you and DiNozzo to go back to the crime scene and try to look for that damn bullet." She stopped in the doorway.

"What about the suspect?"

"I'll let McGee deal with him." Ziva nodded, and then gave an apologetic smile to McGee as she excited autopsy and got into the elevator.

When the doors dinged open, revealing the squadroom to her, she walked out and into the back entrance to the bullpen, noticing that Jake was sitting in Tony's desk, his feet propped up, messing with his cell phone. He looked up and grinned at Ziva, who marched over to his desk, an angry expression on her face, "Hey, Ziva! Why'd you hang up on…" He started, but he didn't finish as she snatched Tony's cell phone out of his hands, holding it up in the air as he sat normally in the chair, "Oh, playing hard to get, are we?" He asked, "I see." He wiggled his eyebrows, "I like a woman with a little bit of spunk." She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes as she glared down at him. He may have been attractive, but she still didn't want anything to do with him, "So how long do you think this case is gonna last?" He asked, sitting back and putting his hands behind his head.

"I would be more concerned with how long your life is going to last if you do not leave me alone." She said, inching closer to him. If this was Tony, he would have backed up, but he didn't. In fact, she thought that he may have actually _liked _it.

"Threat. It's a form of flirting, you know that?" Flirting? She definitely wasn't flirting with him. But threatening people, a form of flirting? That meant…that meant she flirted with Tony every second of the day.

She put her hands on her hips, "Where is Tony?" She demanded.

"You know, why does it matter? Can't I just take your right here, right now, on this desk?"

She slammed her hand down, "Where is Tony?" She shouted, much more force in her words.

"I don't know." He shrugged, "I think he went to the bathroom…"

She growled and then grabbed her backpack and throwing open her desk drawer before pulling her gun out. He put his hands up and backed up.

"Whoa, Whoa, Ziva, please, don't shoot me!"

She rolled her eyes, "As much as I would like to, I am not going to." She growled, holstering her SIG before walking over to Tony's desk, shoving Jake out of the way and grabbed his backpack. She threw open his drawer and pulled out his SIG as well before glaring at Jake once more and then walking towards the bathroom.

She shoved open the metal door, royally pissed off at Tony's college friend, and Tony quickly zipped up his pants and turned to his partner, "Ziva." He sighed, "How many times do I have to tell you that this is a men's restroom?" he asked, sighing as she shoved his backpack at him, handing him his SIG in the process.

"Come on, get the Charger. We have to go back to the crime scene." She said as he started to quickly wash his hands, turning off the water just as fast as he turned it on.

"Why?" He asked as he dried his hands, taking his equipment from her hands and holstering his gun as well as swinging his backpack over his right shoulder.

"Ducky cannot find the bullet. Gibbs thinks it's still at the crime scene." She responded as Tony nodded before following her out of the restroom. To her dismay, Jake was leaning up against the side of the wall.

"Ziva! You go into men's restrooms? You naughty girl!" He said as Tony and Ziva continued to walk towards the elevator. They pressed the button, "You know, I wouldn't mind if you followed me into one of the bathroom's instead of 'ol Tony, here." He pointed to his friend, leaning up against the brick wall next to the elevator, "Did you know that in college he screwed the _entire _sorority house? They were naughty too…"

"Shut up." Tony growled, not wanting Ziva to think that he couldn't handle her. Because he could. He would. Jeanne was just a test for the real thing; Ziva. The elevator doors dinged open and Tony and Ziva hurried into the elevator, pressing the door for the garage.

"You know, Tony isn't reliable. Seriously, he isn't. If he can possibly manage to lay five girls at once…" And the elevator doors closed on him before the lift started back down.

"Sorry about him…he's just…" Tony started up, cutting the silence as he sighed, "He always gets what he wants. The girls he wants." He clarified.

She smirked, "Yes, well I am one _woman_ he is never going to get." He smirked as well as he thought to himself.

_Got that damn right. _


	3. Witness Statement

Tony drove the Charger into the driveway of the victim's house, who, on the way to the crime scene, Abby called and told them that his name was Paul Jones, an active, or not active anymore, petty officer.

He parked the car and both Tony and Ziva got out, flinging their backpacks onto their shoulders, "So what exactly are we looking for?" Tony asked his partner.

"The bullet that killed Petty Officer Jones." She responded, rolling her eyes as she stepped in front of him, pulling out her lock pick and picking the lock to the door, "Do you ever pay attention?"

"Yeah, I pay attention." He said as she opened up the door and they started in. Tony passed her a pair of gloves and they slipped them on as they started towards the living room, where Paul was murdered, "So…" Tony started, "Whatdya think of Jake?"

She scoffed, "What is there to like about him?" She asked, and Tony shrugged his shoulders.

"Just wondering. I mean, he was one of my closest friends at Ohio State."

She bent down on the ground and carefully looked under the couch before standing back up and looking at him, "Seriously?"

"Yeah, Zee-vah, seriously. Jake and I have a lot in common though, you'd be surprised." He smiled as he scanned the area around where Paul's body lay just hours before. _Like being completely in love with you. _

She laughed, "No." She laughed again, "You and he are two completely different people."

It was his turn to laugh, "In what way?"

She walked towards him and stared up into his green eyes, "I like one of you better." She said before starting back towards where she was before.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Where the hell is DiNozzo's witness statement?" Gibbs demanded at McGee as he walked into the bullpen.

"Uh…no idea. Didn't see it, boss."

He groaned and then pointed to Jake, who was sitting in Tony's chair, "You. Up." He stood and Gibbs turned to McGee, pointing to his junior field agent, "You. Conference room. Witness statement. Now."

"On it." McGee said as he motioned for him to follow him up the stairs and into the conference room. The _real _conference room, not the elevator, as Gibbs often would mistake it for, "Take a seat anywhere, Jacob."

"It's Jake, dude." He said as he took a seat close to the door. McGee took the seat in front of him and pulled out his pad and a pen, placing it on the table.

"So what's your name?"

"Jacob Craig. But most people just call me Jake, occasionally Jake Man." He grinned, "Tony used to call me that all of the time."

"And you said that you witnessed the murder?"

"Well no, of course I didn't. If I did, I would have been able to stop it. I was on two teams at Ohio State the basketball team and the track team. I can run like the wind." He nodded, smiling like an idiot.

McGee rolled his eyes and wrote down the information on his notepad, "So what did you see?"

"So Paul was like my best friend, and so I went over to see if he wanted to shoot some hoops, my wife wouldn't stop yelling at me to get off my lazy ass and do something. So I went over and I thought I heard some arguing or something crash or something, I don't know, and this guy came out, his head was covered and stuff, it was odd. Thought he was some kind of drug dealer 'cause I found out that in college, USC, he did lots of drugs. Addict. I was amazed that he even was able to get into the Marines, but then again, he stopped after his freshman year….so I guess it was possible…So anyways, I watched the dude leave and then I knocked on the door. He didn't answer so I looked around for the extra key, 'cause this is America, you gotta have an extra key. I opened the door and there he was, dead in the living room." He said, leaning back and then looking around while he waited for Tim to finish writing, "You guys got any food?"

He rolled his eyes, "No. Did you get a good look at the guy that came out of Petty Officer Jones' house?"

"Dude, I told you, man, he was wearing a hoodie, it was rather ugly, and sunglasses. He looked sketchy, but then again, so did everyone in the neighborhood. Besides me and Paul of course." He shrugged his shoulder.

"Do you think you could determine the height, weight, and age of the man?"

"Yeah, bout…6'1", 6'2", 230...and…36? 35? Middle 30's."

He nodded as he wrote down the calculations, quickly, "License place of the car he took off in?"

"I dunno, dude!" He exclaimed, "I don't pay attention to that shit."

"Car?"

"Oh yeah, got that. Black SUV."

"Make?"

"Yup. GMC Yukon Denali."

"That's all you saw?"

"Positive." He said as McGee started to stand up, "Hey wait." Tim sat back down and opened his notepad back up.

"Look, that Israeli you work with, Ziva?"

"Yeah, what about her?" McGee asked, cautiously, and confused.

"Uh….I think I kinda screwed up with her."

"What are you talking about?"

"She tried to shoot me when I hit on her. DiNozzo's pretty protective of her, but he's definitely not the Tony I used to know in OSU. How can I patch it up with her?"

"Don't flirt. And tell her you're sorry. That's Tony's problem." He said before standing up and motioning for Jake to follow him out of the conference room.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Found it, Tony!" Ziva called from where she moved the couch away from the wall and pried out a small, silver bullet from a hole in the wall. He bent down next to her, staring at the bullet as she turned it in her hand, "The couch was moved after the killing." She said, turning to look at him, "Get the fingerprint kit, there may be prints on the couch. It's in my backpack."

"I know, Ziva." He said as he pulled it out.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gibbs skimmed through the witness statement and then threw it onto his desk, "This doesn't prove anything!" He yelled, "You find something out, McGee!" Gibbs cell rang and he picked it up.

"Yeah, Gibbs."

_"Hey, boss, it's Tony. Ziva found the bullet, the couch was moved; it was lodged into the wall. We're using the fingerprint kit to search for any fingerprints on the couch. I think we have a couple."_ He said, _"We should be back in HQ in a little."_

"Good work DiNozzo. Tell Ziva good work too."

_"Will do, boss." _He said, hanging up the phone.

"McGee, you run every black Denali in Virginia, DC, and Maryland."

"But boss, that'll take hours!"

He just glared at him.

"On it." He moaned as Jake took his seat back in Tony's desk, trying to figure out what he was going to say to get Ziva on his good side.


End file.
